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Ask DC Collectibles: Facebook Frenzy!

Ask DC Collectibles: Facebook Frenzy!

Hi DC Collectors and Facebook fans! Welcome to the “100K Likes” edition of Ask DC Collectibles, our semi-regular question and answer feature here on DCComics.com. A week ago, we asked for your DC Collectibles questions and you responded by posting over 100 questions and comments on our Facebook page. That’s a lot to try and cover, but we love a good challenge. Let’s get to it!

TIMELINE OF PRODUCTION

Arethousa Melaina Titania asked us, “How long does it take to create one collectible?”

The general timeline for our collectibles depends on whether we’re talking about Statues or Action Figures. They both take about a year to create, but the Action Figures taking a little longer in development.

Brian K Rains asked, “What’s in store for next year and how far out do you plan for releases and how do you decide who you make figures for?”

That’s a lot of ands, sir. And a lot of questions. We’ll address the latter and leave the former to the grammar teachers.

Let’s start with what’s on tap for next year. We like to save some surprises for our conventions and for the “Spoiler Alerts” we run on Facebook. But I can tell you that you can bank on big DC Collectibles announcements at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Toy Fair every year. In between these shows we make individual announcements on our Facebook page, so make sure to check back often.

As for our schedule, we have product planned all the way up to January, 2016 (and some ideas of what we are doing throughout 2016). We need about a year to go from initial idea to finished product so we think pretty far out. We usually map out our plan for a year about two years in advance. We pay attention to comics, TV, video games, movies, animation and whatever else may feature DC Entertainment characters.

CHARACTER REQUESTS

Every time we run an “Ask DC Collectibles” column, we get a bunch of favorite character requests. Look, it’s never fun to give away too many of our plans, but we might be able to hint at some things. (And be sure to check the DC Collectibles Facebook page and come to our panels at San Diego Comic-Con and NY Comic Con for even more info!)

Four figures will be revealed tomorrow both on our Facebook page and other sites—some of your questions will definitely get a positive response.

Batwoman—no plans for a new figure yet but we got a great response from the Bombshells art for our editorial variant cover month so we will take that into account.

Vehicles/Batmobiles—not off the table but nothing to reveal now, sorry.

No plans for a giant Doomsday yet, but let us know if you love the Doomed storyline.

Should we finish off the Arkham Origins villains? We might just get to many characters from the three previous games. Time will reveal which ones.

By the way, you can get Arkham City Hugo Strange on the Graphitti Designs website under DC Collectibles con exclusives. (Note there are conditions for international sales)

With Hawkman announced, we have very little left to complete the Justice League of America and Justice League United.

Probably no plans for Grifter, Voodoo or Stormwatch right now.

If Constantine and Zatanna sell really well, we may revisit plans for additional Justice League Dark characters.

So many great Arrow characters. We would love to offer more Arrow action figures…but which ones?

Lots of requests for movie and TV action figures. Maybe something for us to consider…

We previously did a Dick Grayson as Batman figure. You may have seen him in our 75 Batman poster on the Facebook page.

Check out the Capullo Designer series of action figures—we are just starting to see what Court of Owls and Zero Year figures get introduced.

No plans for Kyle right now but we do love our 4” version con exclusive from last year.

More villains are on their way, but maybe not the obscure characters (so no Toyman yet).

Right now, the Batman/The Joker two-pack for Injustice is the last planned. But if there is enough interest, it would be great to visit some of the new downloadable characters.

We are looking for suggestions for our next Designer series. Kenneth Rocafort is a great choice. Who else would you like to see?

There is a lot of love for Batman Beyond. He is definitely getting some attention in Futures End.

So far we have no plans for additional Anarky figures, but we love your passion!

No plans for a full on Green Lantern continuation of figures, but that doesn’t mean that Green Lantern won’t still be represented.

QUALITY CONTROL

We had some comments and questions on the quality control of the DC Collectibles figures and statues. Josh, Tyler, Rez, Jairo, Matt, Richard and Chris all had various questions, and so we wanted to talk about this first.

Currently our review process for our products works in a few stages. We have a team here at DC that reviews the various stages of production from the factories. We review and make comments and work with the factories to make changes. After some rounds of changes, we see what we call our Quality Control samples. These are basically the first items off the factory line. They are in a package and for all intents are considered finished product.

So now let’s talk about some specific problems that the fans are asking about…

Breakage and clear joints—Some fans have had issues with action figure limbs popping off the figure. The current production of figures uses a plastic barbell shape joint which can allow limbs to pop on and off the figure. What this means is that you most likely won’t see broken joints anymore since changing to the new barbell shape. Of course, our goal is always to make sure that the limbs won’t pop off on their own, so we are looking at alternative solutions that will be implemented in our late 2015 product.

Paint issues—Paint on the sculptures and figures can be “messy” or incomplete if the factory has multiple paint applications making the process more complex and harder to control. We are always looking for ways to improve this.

Unfortunately, right now we have no plans for stands to be included in the standard action figure lines. Our basic figures stand without the bases compared to our more artist specific action figure lines. We are planning to include stands in the Batman Animated series line of figures. We also have potential plans for stands to be offered separately in 2015.

ARTICULATION

Some of our fans articulated their desire for specific articulation! We are currently in the process of getting a lot more official about the types of articulation we will use. Hopefully you voted in our recent poll about the type of articulation you want to see! The Designer series will also allow us to keep exploring articulation that is individualized for each character.

INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS

Mack Ruciak asked, “With the recent Michael Turner Black & White statue by CS Moore being shown off, is there any possibility for Moore to do a Michael Turner Superman for the Man of Steel line and a Wonder Woman for the Art of War line? And of course a Supergirl too…”

We are so glad to hear that you like both Michael’s style and Clayburn’s sculpting. We felt it was important to faithfully capture Michael’s distinctive style and Clayburn was the talent to do it. We have Clayburn working with us on some future sculpts but we haven’t put any more Turner sculptures on the schedule just yet. But it is a great idea and one that we will consider as we all would love a complete set!

John Burk asked us, “Any chance for a Huntress or Power Girl Bombshells statue?”

We love the Bombshells line and hope it has a very long life. While we don’t have the World’s Finest pair scheduled, they would make a great edition. Thank you for the suggestion and keep supporting Bombshells so that we can get all the women of the DCU into the line.

Jason Yeung and Javier Rodrigues mentioned, “A lot of fans would like to see the return of DC Minimates.”

Many of the DC Collectibles team are also fans of the minimates. Because of other licensees, we are unable to bring them back. But we hear you and know there is a passionate fan base for this. We will let you know if anything changes going forward.

Matthew Blakesley asked, “How likely are future Arrow-related collectibles?” With the confirmation of a third season of Arrow on The CW, all signs point to very likely! Look out for licensees as well as DC Collectibles to see what Arrow product may be coming your way.

Chris Barnes and Steve Tiller queried, “Ship to Canada/Why does DC Collectibles not ship to Canada?”

We have a distribution deal with Diamond Distributors who distribute to retail and other distributors around the world. Canada has always been a part of that distribution deal. For items that you can’t find in local shops, please shop online for our items as some e-retailers do ship into Canada.

DC Collectibles is definitely here to support all fans of our characters, not just one particular era.

The challenge comes when you combine our limited output with a need to support areas that our licensees may not be supporting yet. We felt that there was more opportunity for New 52-based product for consumers since we had been producing pre-52 items for years. In addition, many of our licensees still support the pre-52 style. We are using our Designer Series to support particular current artists that also happen to be New 52. With that being said, we have no restrictions, so anything is possible—just look at our statue lines and the upcoming Batman animated action figure line!

Jessie Glover wondered, “Have you ever considered creating a line of figures that are not specifically based on a book.”

It is definitely something we consider but it can be tricky. Action figures are very expensive to develop and so an existing version of a character can be more recognizable and more likely to sell as opposed to a figure newly created. With that being said, we love to challenge ourselves so we may surprise you yet.

Connee Mariya asked us, “Will DC Collectibles do a steampunk line of the female characters?”

We love steampunk here at DCC and have considered doing a line of statues for both the men and women of the DCU. If there is enough interest, you may see it in the future.

Kaiser, Tim and Chad asked about more Bruce TImm statues.

We had such a success with the beautiful Harley Quinn Batman Black & White that it’s clear how much the fans love Timm’s work. We have no plans yet, but we are definitely interested.

Act Fig Col asked us, “Are you guys planning on releasing a poster checklist of all the figures released?”

We have just started to put together some checklists (because we all love a good checklist). Be on the lookout for our catalog at San Diego Comic-Con and in some comic specialty shops that will feature checklists for certain lines of product.

Corey Poole asked, “Just wondering if you have reduced the number of figures in the future Scribblenauts waves.”

You are correct! We recently changed waves 3 and 4 to feature only 8 new characters as opposed to the 10-11 new characters in the first two waves. This was done to make the box size a little friendlier to retail as well as allow us to keep the waves of characters coming more frequently. We are so happy with the support of this line and want to do our best to see it continue.

Craig Gorman makes a request for a Norm Brefogle B&W statue.

We love Norm’s work and hope to work his style into future waves of the Batman Black & White line. This year we are focusing on Dick Sprang in order to celebrate Batman’s history. When it makes sense from a planning standpoint, we will work Norm into the line. Stay with us as there are a ton of creators still needing to get recognized.

Scott Lindsey was wondering, “Will we see any more 4” figures like the Green Lanterns or the Injustice lines you did?”

Check out Mattel’s new Multiverse line. They have some amazing video game and movie-related figures coming out. We don’t want to crowd the market too much with the same thing so our plans to expand on our Green Lantern offering are currently on hold. But not forgotten.

Noah Roush asked us, “Will more things with Zatanna be done?” We have both an Action Figure and Bombshells statue coming out before the end of 2014. If these sell as well as we think, we are sure you will see more magical product coming your way.

Scott Kelson questioned, “Are there any plans for Tiny Titans product down the line?”

Scott there are some amazing products in the works for the Teen Titans Go! TV series that include plush and action figures. Jazzwares is the licensee and they make really fun products. As for Tiny Titans, we don’t have any plans currently, but have begun to explore more family friendly collectibles like Super Best Friends Forever, Li’l Gotham and our Deadman plush. Check them out and hopefully we will keep expanding our product lines.

Victor Teddy Moreno wants to know the release date for wave one of the Designer Series action figures based on the amazing art of Greg Capullo.

After a brief delay, the figures are now hitting retail stores in late May and early June, 2014. Look for the figures online as well if you can’t find them in stores.

Diego Xavier Espinoza Olazabal asks for a 6” line to complete the New 52 models in 6”.

This is a hot topic for discussion and may warrant a poll for our Facebook fans to see if a 6” line as opposed to a 6.75” line is something of interest to the gang. Stay tuned on this topic.

BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES

A bunch of fans asked us some specific questions regarding our upcoming line based on Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. While we can’t reveal too much about our long range plans, look for some information on wave 2 as soon as tomorrow on our Facebook page.

Well that is as much as we could get through this time around. Come see us at San Diego Comic-Con. We will have a panel and also be found around the DC Entertainment Booth by our product display. Stop by and say ”hi” and let us know that you are a Facebook fan!

We hope you keep asking questions as we look forward to future “Ask DC Collectible” features!